From the Explorers’ Website:
PHILADELPHIA, PA – La Salle University men’s basketball junior Yves Mekongo Mbala (Elizabeth, NJ/St. Patrick’s) has been named to the ESPN the Magazine/CO-SIDA Academic All America Team.

Mekongo Mbala is just one of 15 players in America to be named to one of the three teams.  A second team selection, Mekongo Mbala boasts the highest grade point average of the five players on the second team and only four of the players on the first team have a higher GPA.

Until suffering a hand injury that has kept him out of the last five games Mekongo Mbala had posted a team high streak of 60 consecutive starts.  At the time of his injury he was, and remains, the team’s leading rebounder (6.4 rpg) as well as its third-leading scorer with 11.1 points per game.

Mekongo Mbala, a major in Integrated Science, Business & Technology, is one of just three underclassmen named on all three teams.

He becomes the fourth Explorer men’s basketball player to be named Academic All-American since Jack Hurd earned the nod in 1992.  The other Explorers to earn the honor are ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler (1988) and current Philadelphia 76′ers head coach Tony DiLeo (1977).